Living in Three Places Instead of One

By Neil Solomon · 3 min read

Picture a couple named Lorna and Vic, both sixty-three, who are told by everyone to pick a country. They read the lists. Each time they get down to one place, they feel a small loss. Vic loves Paris in the long light of summer. Lorna loves Buenos Aires in the southern spring. Both love warm water in January.

Then Lorna asks a different question. Why one?

They draw a year on one sheet of paper in three pieces. Four months in Paris, from May to August. Four months in Buenos Aires, from September to December. Four months on a Caribbean island, from January to April. They would not see a winter coat.

Lorna looks up the monthly spending for each place in our calculator, for a couple living like the top 10 percent of people in each country. The number for France covers the whole country, so Paris may run higher.

One year in three places (calculator figures for a couple)

Because the three shares are equal, it is the same as dividing each monthly number by three and adding them. $2,850 plus $1,210 plus $1,117 is $5,177 a month.

If the shares are not equal, she multiplies each monthly spending by that place’s share of the year, and adds. Five months in Paris, four in Buenos Aires and three on the island would be five-twelfths of $8,550, plus four-twelfths of $3,630, plus three-twelfths of $3,350. That is $5,610 a month.

Then she adds what the calculator does not know about her year. Flights between three places, which she guesses at $4,000 for two people. And a cushion of 10 percent, because short stays often rent for more than a year-long lease. The year comes to about $72,300, or $6,030 a month.

France alone for the whole year would be about $102,600. Lorna and Vic would spend about $30,000 less, and they would live in three places.

You might say moving three times a year is tiring. For some people it is. Lorna and Vic ask one thing about each place before they book: what does it take to stay four months? Tourists are often allowed about three months in many countries, so four months may need a longer-stay permit. Tax and health insurance rules often count the days you spend in each country, too. They check each one in advance.

Many people choose two places and not three. Winter on an island and summer in the mountains is a common pattern. Others spend part of the year in their home country, to see family. That place gets its own monthly number and its own share, just like any other.

I think of a world citizen as someone who lives in more than one place in a year and belongs to each of them a little.

You could draw your own year on a sheet of paper, in months. For each place, you could look up the monthly number and multiply it by that share of the year. You could add flights and a cushion, and set the total beside one place all year.

Where would you spend each season of your year? Tell us in the comments. Someone reading may be about to draw their first sheet.